Central bank upbeat at Nigeria recovery prospects

Central Bank of Nigeria

From OKORO CHINEDU in Lagos, NigeriaLAGOS, (CAJ News) – THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) looks likely to retain market rates in 2017 as Africa’s biggest economy shows signs of overcoming a decline.
On Tuesday, the apex bank, in line with general expectations, retained the monetary policy rate at 14 percent.
The threshold was retained in other rates.
Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) said the bank expressed the committee’s cautious optimism in assessing the domestic economy.
While February’s year-on-year inflation showed a decline, the drop was largely on account of base effects which masked the underlying inflationary pressures as expressed in the month-on-month figure.
Moreover, the governor noted that while last quarter 2016, economic growth was marginally better than the preceding two quarters.
“The economy was still in a recessionary environment,” FBN stated.
“In our view, any policy decision will likely be counterproductive if not aligned with the FX policy. We continue to hold the view that the MPC will keep the rates unchanged for the better part of this year,” stated RMB.
– CAJ News